Morning Updates: Ben and Jen split, while Tom and Gisele face a Brahmin behemoth
Good morning Boston! Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner call it quits, Tom and Gisele are up against a Brahmin behemoth, and the rest of the news you need to know today.
U.S. Olympic Committee moves forward with Boston 2024 bid: “However, improving local support remains a concern, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said. ‘That’s a weakness of the bid right now,’ he said, noting that while the USOC had no specific polling benchmarks, it hoped support would pass 60 percent by the time the International Olympic Committee chooses a host in 2017. Boston’s support for the games has recently hovered below 40 percent.’’ (Boston.com)
Berkshire paper’s racist column criticized for being really racist: “The column’s author, Steven Nikitas … argued against what he called ‘endless media hand-wringing that somehow ‘we’ must all do something more to help black America.’ … He went on to write that black people should ‘reform their culture from top to bottom by respecting marriage and the family and the law, returning to their churches, embracing education and hard work, avoiding violence and debased rap music, speaking clearly, shunning drugs and profanity, and pulling up their pants.’’’ (The Boston Globe)
Tom and Gisele face a challenge like no other: “Just how exclusive is The Country Club in Brookline? We’re about to find out. Word around the club’s meticulously manicured grounds is that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel spouse, Gisele Bundchen, whose mansion is just an errant tee shot away, would like to join. But it’s not clear if the club famous for understatement and insularity will accept the glamorous power couple as members. Why? Because the 133-year-old institution prizes privacy and discretion above all else.’’ (The Boston Globe)
Meet the gay feminist badass from Mass. who wrote “America the Beautiful’’: “As a popular educator at Wellesley, [Katharine Lee] Bates was also vocal about women’s rights, and she was instrumental in feminist initiatives of the era. … Bates’s famous American tune was not simply written out of a feeling of nationalism, it was crafted with a tone of progressiveness. Just take a look at this lyric if you don’t think that there were some shades of protest in her words: ‘America! America! God shed his grace on thee. Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free!’’’ (Boston.com)
Bennifer calls it quits: “After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce,’’ Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner said in a statement. “We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children whose privacy we ask to be respected during this difficult time.’’ (Boston.com)
The Goodbye: Ben and Jen in better times.
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